Bristol planners have recommended that plans for a new hospital at Southmead should be given the go-ahead.

Councillors will make a final decision on the application for the £430 million project at a meeting next week.

If approval is given, work is planned to start on site next February.

The Private Finance Initiative (PFI) hospital is due to be built by consortium Carillion, which will arrange the funding of the project and its maintenance for 30 years, in exchange for regular payments from North Bristol NHS Trust (NBT), although contracts are yet to be signed.

Initial planning approval was given for the redevelopment of Southmead Hospital in September 2007, but councillors now have to give the final approval on the more detailed plans.

The application includes the replacement acute hospital with 800 beds, along with a community facility.

There will be a main building consisting of three interlinked towers ranging from four to six stories high, and 2,700 parking spaces, including a multi-story car park.

A central square and park along with a piazza have been included in the designs

The main building has been planned on the edge of the site, near Dorian Road so that the hospital can continue running during construction. When patients and staff move into the new hospital the buildings that become redundant will be demolished.

A total of 1,980 consultation letters were sent to houses near the hospital and 20 letters of objection or raising concerns about the application were received.

The objections focused on the height of the main building in relation to nearby housing, the proximity of the hospital to the neighbouring houses, and concerns that it will overshadow homes in Dorian Close and Tilling Road.

Concerns have also been raised about the increased traffic in and around Dorian Road as a result of the entrance for emergency vehicles as well as construction noise and traffic.

As previously reported in the Evening Post, residents of Dorian Close are concerned that the main building is too close to their homes and will block out light.

Concerns were also raised by Cherington Road Neighbourhood Watch and an objection made by South Gloucestershire Council because of concerns about construction traffic.

Planning officer Phil Carr acknowledged in his report that residents of Dorian Close will be affected by a loss of sunlight, daylight and shadowing through the development.

He said: "There is little scope to effectively mitigate this impact. The impact on residential amenities must therefore be weighed against the wider issues of securing a high-quality design and the fundamental need to provide a functional, integrated, new acute facility on the site.

"It is felt that both of these objectives are achieved in the proposed development and outweigh the harm to residential amenities."

One man who lives in Dorian Close, but did not wish to be named, said: "The report seems to come back to the fact that they will only be harming a few for the greater good of Bristol.

"I want someone to sit in my garden and look at what I am going to lose, but I don't think there's anything anyone can do.

"But I will be purchasing a decibel monitor and will be watching that they do not breach any of the conditions that have been put down."

Mr Carr has advised that planning permission should be approved.

Councillors on the development control (North) committee will take a tour of the site with planning officers ahead of the evening session at the Council House but representatives from the health trust will not join them.